ORGANIZACIÓN

“Do you believe in fortune-telling?” the mentalist asks his au-dience. This can sometimes lead into an interesting conversa-tion. Once this has concluded, the mentalist continues.

“Scientists have been examining precognition, or the art of knowing what is going to happen ahead of time.

Of course, this skill is fairly rare, and I think this is largely the fault of the person receiving the fortune. For instance, if I read your future and told you that you’d be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams in the future, you might sit back and do nothing except wait for the wealth to arrive. If you hadn’t been told about your glowing future, you might have got stuck in, worked hard, and made a lot of money.

In that instance, telling you your future was not a good thing to do, as it effectively changed it. What if

some-one predicted a major disaster in your future. Do you think that might affect the way you acted in the future, too?

“There’s also the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Many people who drive on Friday 13th of any month expect to be involved in an accident.

Consequently, there are 52% more accidents on Friday 13th than on other days. (See COMMENTS.)

“All of these things create problems for any self-respect-ing fortune-teller,” the mage continues. “This has led to the creation of the Nexus Effect. The Nexus Effect

doesn’t consider the future to be fixed and unchange-able. Instead, it sees the future as a web of possibilities.

Throughout this web are nexuses, or change points. At these spots people can change their minds, or perhaps have a whole lot of new possibilities made available to them. It’s highly likely that what fortune-tellers see are the nexuses, or change points, rather than the ultimate outcome. This might seem strange or compli-cated, but I assure you it makes perfect sense.

Maybe I could demonstrate it to you. . .”

All of the above could be used to introduce any predic-tion effect, but I think it works best with a three-part prediction. Here is what I’ve been doing.

REQUIRED: A large plastic bag with a divider in the middle. In the front half of this bag place sixty or sev-enty folded slips of paper, each containing a different four-digit number. In the bag half of the bag place sixty or seventy folded pieces of paper all bearing the same four-digit number. This will be your force number.

You’ll also need three similar slips of paper, which you’ll use to write your predictions on, and a mug, or other container, to hold your predictions once you’ve made them.

Choose a good-natured person to help you. As you’ll see as the routine unfolds, you’ll need the same person for all three predictions.

ROUTINE

“Thanks for helping me. I’m going to try to work with the nexus of your mind in three different ways. First we’ll go back into your past, and then we’ll do some-thing from the present. Finally, we’ll go into the future.

Is that okay? Good. We’re going to start with your past.

Let your mind drift back to your earliest days at school.

In your mind’s eye, see if you can see the class you were in. Look around and choose anyone in that room.

Have you done that? Good. Don’t say the person’s name out loud. All you have to do is think of the name.”

Study the volunteer for a few moments, and then write your thoughts on a slip of paper. Fold the paper into quarters and drop it into the mug.

Smile at your volunteer.

“That was fascinating. I got the distinct impression that you hadn’t thought of that person in years. Is that right? What was the person’s name?”

“Bill.”

The mage looks pleased. “Bill? Interesting. Now, let’s try this again, but this time we’ll involve the present.

Look at the people in this audience. Look at them, and

without making it obvious in any way, choose one of them and think of his or her first name.”

Again the mage studies the volunteer and writes some-thing on a slip of paper. He folds it into quarters and tosses it into the mug.

“Who were you thinking of?”

“Nancy.”

“Aha! That’s very interesting. I’m sure Nancy finds that interesting, too.

Well now we’re going to move into the future. We’ve played with a nexus from the past, and one from the present. Now I need to predict something that you haven’t done yet.”

For the third time, the mage studies the volunteer and makes a prediction, which is folded into quarters and dropped into the mug. The mage then holds up the plastic envelope and displays it.

“In here are about 150 slips of paper. Each of them con-tains a different four-digit number. Would you please verify that for yourself. Take out three or four slips and read out the numbers.”

“2146, 8896, 3672 and 1956.”

“Good.” The mage refolds the four selected slips and drops them back into the bag. He closes the bag and shakes it vigorously. “And now it’s time for you to make a choice. When I open the bag, I want you to reach in and grab one slip. I don’t want you to consciously think about it. Naturally, you can take a slip from anywhere in the bag, but I want it to be spontaneous.”

The mage opens the bag and lets the spectator remove a slip. The plastic bag is placed to one side.

“Don’t open up the slip just yet. And please don’t let anyone, especially me, touch it.”

The mage holds up the mug containing his three pre-dictions and tips them onto the table. He reaches over and picks one up. He opens it, and slowly smiles.

“What was the name of your friend at school again?”

“Bill.”

The mage nods and turns over the slip so everyone can read the word “Bill” written on it. He picks up a second slip and opens it.

“You chose Nancy, didn’t you?” The mage displays the second slip which contains the word “Nancy.”

“It looks as if we’re at the moment of truth. Two out of three isn’t bad, but you might be able to analyze it. Af-ter all, you probably don’t know the names of everyone in this room. Given that choice, who wouldn’t pick an attractive lady like Nancy? It’s possible that you men-tioned Bill in conversation with me some time ago.

However, I made my prediction before you chose a number. The only way our numbers could match would be if I were able to follow your thinking patterns through to the next nexus. Let’s open up the slips to-gether and see what we got.”

Both the slips are opened and, amazingly enough, the two four-digit numbers match.

METHOD

This is a simple version of Mental Epic. When you are apparently writing down the name of the person’s friend at school, you actually write down the four-digit number. You are now one-ahead. When apparently writing down the name of the person in the room, you write down the name of the old school friend. Finally, when apparently divining the four-digit number, you write down the name of the person in the room.

When you tip over the mug to reveal the contents, you do it from a height of at least twenty centimetres, so they have a chance to change positions. If you wish, you can shake the mug before tipping them out. Obvi-ously, you have to reveal the four-digit number last. I bend a corner of this prediction slip as I drop it into the mug. This makes it recognisable when you’re looking at the three apparently identical slips after tipping them from the mug. I don’t worry about the other two slips.

If I happen to open the slip with the name from the present first, I’ll start with that, and then do the name from the past.

COMMENTS

In a 1995 study of accident figures, Dr Thomas Scanlon, Public Health Registrar on the M25 motorway in the UK, wrote that although fewer people used a certain stretch of road on six consecutive Friday 13ths, more accidents and injuries occurred than usual. In fact, the risk of an accident increased by 52%. (Cassandra Eason, Encyclo-pedia of Magic and Ancient Wisdom. London

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